As it has been pointed out, there seems to be a lot of injuries out there.

Okay, let's get them all in one place. Whether they are skating related or just bothering you while skating. Whether they are new or you are still recovering.

Let's get the details and remedies/treatments together.


My immediate pain is my left shoulder. I had a cortisone shot a couple of months ago for bursitis that relieved the pain. Unfortunately, I was trying to be 15 years old again over the weekend and popped something. That'll teach me to try to perform up to my 15 year old twin sons' standards.

It really bothers me when I try to hold my arms out while skating. Certain positions are impossible and it fatigues quickly.

Lots of ice packs and anti-inflammatory drugs.

Lower back - from spirals?
Left knee from whacking the floor when practicing rotating at home.
Right hip from falling on an attempt at doing the back spin.
Neck, from all the turning and stretching, not so great when you have whip lash.
Feet hurt during and after skating due to boot woes.
Ankles hurt whenever any pressure is applied to the many bruises I have gotten from my boots.

AND YES tonight I will go skate for an hour and then stretch until I can walk and move in comfort. It's almost as if the pain is a challenge to me since it's annoying but I can live with it.

I've had a few bouts with bursitis in the shoulder and every single time the doctor has recommended applying heat to the area. Maybe you should try that instead of the ice packs and see if it makes it better.

Yesterday on a spin, I fell gently on the spot where I had fallen hard last week on a lutz attempt. It shouldn't have hurt, but I guess the bruise hasn't totally healed yet and I just made it worse, LOL.

Today, I crashed into a little kid (it was so crowded!) and her skates hit my left shin. It might have been a blade, but luckily rental skates are never that sharp anyway. Another bruise....

My shoulders sometimes hurt, too, but that's been the results of nasty falls, mostly from the backspin.

Otherwise, I think my "injuries" are pretty tame, LOL. I expect that most of the bruises will heal in a week or two, and then I'll end up with some more.

Tendonitis in right hand, work/school related. It doesn't bother me to skate if I wear a brace on it, and I should to protect it if I fall skating. I knew that when the cast came off the area would just flare up again from normal use, and the fact I have to type my thesis proposal is not helping any either. It feels like I have fallen on it and sprained it...the area is that tender and painful during the day sometimes. I don't know what is going to give here. I'm just hoping I can finish my dissertation in the next two years and move on to an area where I don't have to (over)use the thumb joint too much, which is the most severely affected area. I guess I can wait that long if I have to have anything major done (i.e. surgery), but it will be a painful wait.

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All that glitters has a high refractive index.

Let's see...

Wrist tendonitis... work related and it's interfere with typing, which is what I need to do to do my job! WAAAAAH!!! Getting worker's comp and seeing a chiropractor for this... but am still currently working 'til then. (This is partly why I haven't been posting as of late.)

Right shoulder tendonitis: From doing weights. Dumbbell arm curls is my guess

Sciatica: Could be skating related, though I have no idea how I got it in the first place. (Someone told me it's simply that I'm getting old...) Sitting down for long periods of time aggravates it.

Bruised right knee: From fall on my spin entry attempt Monday night during my lesson.

Hamstring is sore after skating still... have to really stretch to keep it from getting worse...

I'm getting old and already falling apart here, folks!!!

Cheers,
jazzpants

My left ball of foot, just under the big toe has been hurting since March. I went to the GP after 4 weeks of it hurting, but I had stayed off the ice for 3 weeks to see if it would go away itself first.
It didn't.
The GP referred me to podiatrist (fancy name for foot doctor) at the hospital, which I attended 2 days ago.

Up till this point I had been wearing a Bunga pad inside my sock (even when walking) and continued to jump on it. It's my landing foot.

Podiatrist said that without stopping skating or at least cutting down, it wasn't ever going to go away.
My left underfoot is obviously a much bigger size than my right now - it's like walking on a golf ball at times.

He says (obvious to me) that it's because of the continual "pounding" it's getting.
He felt the inside of my boot and said "That must be like jumping on concrete!" Yeh well, the ice is like concrete so what the hang...?

Sent me away with more silicon padding at no cost! (even for the NHS, this is incredible these days!)

It still hurts, but I'll just have to live with it.

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Toothache - or is it earache, or neuralgia, or what? Dunno.

Sometimes get very sore knees when skating, especially if working on one-footed slaloms or anything that requires a great deal of "up-down-up" on one knee. Also sore lower back, which I'm sure is husband pulling me around, as it's been better lately!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Thanks Susana!! I'll try some heat on my shoulder.
Heck, I'd try hot sauce or mayonaise if it would work.

Sciatica can be VERY painful. I've had it several times, once so severely that I was in bed for three weeks unable to move.

A chiropractor can be very helpful with this.

DO NOT apply heat to the area. It causes a slight swelling that puts additional pressure on the nerve and causes increased pain. This includes hot showers (I learned this the hard way).

Ice packs several times a day reduce the swelling.

Also, ibuprofin as an anti-inflammatory.

WARNING!! on ibuprofin.
It is a terrific anti-inflammatory medication, but is also a pain blocker. Blocking the pain can be good if you're healing, but it will also allow you to unknowingly overstress and possibly injure your body if you are practicing or competing.

In other words, you can pull a muscle and not know it until the medication wears off.

1. Remains of a slightly infected ingrown toenail on my left foot.

2. A very sore upper shin... fell doing the cross-LFO3 in the Foxtrot the other week, smack onto the lower knee/upper shin, about where the patellar tendon is connected to the tibia. I'm going to the doc next week, but have been advised by a friend of mine in the medical field that it sounds like I whacked the daylights out of the tibial plateau and possibly did meniscus damage. Surprisingly, it doesn't hurt except when I press the area where it's damaged (via touch or accidentally kneeling on it).

That's about it for now. My left knee is doing fine.... my other previous aches and pains are holding together also.

--jsl

I have a lovely brown bruise on my right kneecap. It actually looks like I painted my kneecap brown. This was from falling out of lunges on Tuesady night. It doesn't hurt unless I touch it.

Sore inner thigh muscles from above mentioned lunges. And quads. However, I think I'll be fine once my camp is done and I rest over the weekend. Nothing serious.

Oh, and I have a few stray mosquito bites, but that has nothing to do with skating.

Left hamstring group - ick
Right hip - getting much better.

need fun now!

Cracked tailbone. There's no treatment except time - and there is no pillow soft enough to be comfortable. None. Ow.


Melanie, that lump under your foot sounds like Morton's Neuroma, which is a chronic inflamation of the nerve running between the bones down to your toes. A really good orthopedist who specializes in foot issues could tell you for sure. It's very common in marathon runner and others who feet take repeated pounding onto hard surfaces. Cortisone injections can help, but I had mine removed surgically last year. All I lost was a little of the feeling on the insides of my third and forth toes. Now I have another one - I think - growing on the ball of my landing foot. I will have to make an appointment to have it checked but I can't have anything done to it until the rinks close next spring.

Bumps and lots of bruises

Ligament damage in right knee from falling down the stairs in March

Fractured wrist (Colles fracture) from falling on a BO3 on Tuesday morning


L x

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The best whisper is a click

Ok, I perpetually have what I like to refer to as "loop leg." We've defined it as the sore pain in the top of your right (CCW - left for CW) leg/hip from attempting too many loops.

I also have sit spin knee....same thing. Too many attempted sit spins (or in my case squat spins) made my knee really sore.

My lower back has been hurting from ina bauers, too.

But the good news is the extra pinky toes I grew as the result of having boots that didn't quite fit right is much better AND I anticipate getting my new custom skates in another week or two. YAY!

Also, my Dr. has recommended Glucosamine with MSM to help with the pounding from skating. I'll let everyone know how it works.

I've been taking it for the last 6 months. It takes a few weeks to start helping, but it really does helps.

Back in my mid 20's, I dislocated my right knee and it has always given me problems and soreness.

The Glucosamine w/ MSN has reduced the pain drmatically.

I will second this, or is it third it? I've recently started taking it, at my parents' suggestion (My father said: "It might be bad when you are taking it but you do notice it when you don't take it!"), and am much less stiff.

The other thing I notice when I don't take, if you see what I mean, is cod-liver-oil. I thought at first starflower or evening primrose oil would do, but it doesn't, not nearly as well.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Swollen feet because of the hot summer days. One of my jobs is a cashier & I have been working longer shifts this summer while I'm off from school. When I have to go straight from work to practice, my feet hurt in my skates the whole time because they swelled from heat & standing all day.

Knees: patellofemoral stress syndrome (kneecap jumps off-track a bit, ow) (started way before I started skating). The first M.D. I saw for this blew off my question about PT and said there wasn’t really anything to do for it, and in the following months, I noticed muscle atrophy from avoiding stairs, etc. The first thing my second ortho did was send me to PT and prescribe an anti-inflammatory for the swelling it turned out I’d had the whole time.

So I only skate about an hour a week, as my knees need time between sessions to recover. I wear a stretchy brace on the worse knee when skating (which helps with support/warmth), and am slowly increasing off-ice PT exercises. Doing a little PT just before leaving for the rink seems to stimulate the part of the quad that helps the kneecap “track” better. After a session, ice, ice ice! -- and NSAIDs when necessary (yes, Gary, I am careful while on them not to injure myself further).

Feet: one bout with a compressed nerve (tingling) due to lace bite; a (very) long rest and new boots took care of that, but I wear Bungas to help avoid a repeat. Also a bout of heel strike pain and arch pain (before I started skating) that gradually improved with OTC gel heel pads and supports in certain shoes.

Yeah, I guess I’m falling apart too . . .. But I’m not going down without a fight!

-- wannask8

ALRIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm with you on this. I'm thinking about using duct tape to hold my joints together. It's a guy thing.

TashaKat! This injury deserves a thread of its own. I'm so sorry to hear of it. That's exactly what I had last August, so I know you are having a hard time typing, but please share more with us, as I am sure everyone will want to send you their condolences and tips for maintaing morale and fitness.

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lets see... I have a bruised left knee from tripping on my toe picks last week. I have a sore right knee from too many axels. My feet are pronating in my semi-new boots so I have sore bones at the top of my arch... ugh. Those i think are the worst. i have to make sure i pad them really well until I get my orthotics!

See thread Bad Summer Weather and for what bugs me.

I've been trying a treatment all my own to correct hammer toe in my right foot which was causing stabbing pain in a nerve in my foot. What I've done to correct this is take one of the sponge triangular make up things fold the narrow tip and tape it. I then place it between the base of my big toe and the toe next to it. I've notice that my big toe has been straightening out and that the pain I had running through the nerve in my foot has stopped. I can actually attempt proper flips and loops now. Now if I could just find that bag I had with the other sponges to work on the left foot. I should really design something like a small oval to put in between the hammer toe and the toe beside it and then patent it. All this just because it the hammer toe was getting so bad that I was having trouble standing on my right foot and walking.

Anyone else come up with their own cures for skating injuries?

Brigitte a.k.a singerskates

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

wannask8--I have had both knees rebuilt to help correct tracking problems, among other things. The doctor who told you there wasn't really anything to do for it was wrong. In most cases, PT can help considerably. Surgery is done as a last resort and whether or not you will ever need it depends on your own situation. I needed surgery because I had other things wrong with my knees in addition to the tracking problem, but I did an extensive PT program first before we decided it was not helping enough.

My orthopedic surgeon says that even with the surgeries I will need to follow a PT program for the rest of my life to keep my muscles strong so my kneecap doesn't try to jump off track. My therapist recommended lots of quad stengthening exercises and told me not to do as many hamstring exercises as I had been doing because my hamstrings were much stronger than my quads and it was creating an imbalance. We also work on developing the muscles in the inner knee area and work on hip flexors.

It sounds as though you are already doing many of the correct things by doing PT, limiting your ice time, wearing a brace for warmth and support, icing your knees, and taking NSAIDS when needed. Having bad knees does make it harder to do all the things we'd like to do on ice, but it's not impossible. My knees will always hurt, but I try to do the best I can with what I've got. Prior to the surgeries, my surgeon's goal was that I would walk without a limp. He didn't think skating would be possible and was very pleased to be proven wrong.

Good luck.

Ah, the Busted Knee Brigade is bigger than I thought. Sounds like your ortho and mine (the second one, not the lame first one) are totally on the same page: my guy is also a real hold-out on surgery and a big believer in PT, as am I (I couldn’t walk properly without it). Knowing that my skating will improve and be less painful is a great motivator for doing those exercises!

-- wannask8